FOR A CHEilSTIAN PHILOSOPHY. 



73 



very intuitions. In intuitive consciousness we find the basis of all 

 our knowledge of truth. 



■ With reference to Descartes' argument — " Cogito. ergo sum " — it 

 may be noted that, though logically unassailable (since thinking 

 implies a thinker), there is a psychological redundance, for the 

 " cogito," equally with the " sum," depends for belief upon the 

 intuitive testimony of consciousness. 



The author tells us (p. 67) that his position is open to " certain 

 obvious objections." Undoubtedly, that cannot be true which is in 

 antagonism to any truth, for truth is one and does not contradict 

 itself. The individual personal experience of the redemption 

 revelation "must be, in the nature of the case, at once historical 

 and supernatural ... It must have created on the plane of 

 history those doctrinal propositions that create it in the individual " 

 (p. 58). 



The Son of God, in Whom we put our heart-trust, must be the 

 historic Christ, the Christ of the Bible — not a false Christ, not a 

 Christ Who is the product of a devout or of an undevout 

 imagination. The faith must have warrant, not subjective only, 

 but also objective, if we would adequately commend it to men and 

 be secured against self-delusion. This is enjoined by the Bible. 

 The Lord Jesus Christ appealed to His miracles as evidence, and 

 Christians are exhorted to be able to give a reason to inquirers for 

 the faith that is in them, for Christianity is not selfish. The 

 personal experience, to the individual himself the strongest of all 

 proofs, is not sufficient alone to convince other people. It needs 

 objective confirmation. It may be said that there is such a thing 

 as self-delusion. A man believing himself to be the Emperor of 

 Abyssinia would not necessarily be proof that he was so. Christian 

 Philosophy does not restrict itself to any single department — how- 

 ever important — of human nature. It addresses itself to the tvhole 

 being of man, to his heart, his mind, his life. 



The Eev. H. J. R. Marston said : He had listened to the paper 

 with great pleasure and admiration. The lecturer was an esteemed 

 friend and co-worker, and this added to his pleasure. He hailed 

 with satisfaction the coming to the front of a young man, a member 

 of the Church of England, an Evangelical, who had given to the 

 subject really profound thought. His language was not throughout 

 quite luminous, but this was a common failing of learned 



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